Top Punjab Cong leaders land deals rock Punjab assembly

The alleged murky land deals of Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa and his brother around the periphery of Chandigarh today rocked the state Assembly, prompting the Congress to demand a probe to unravel the truth.
Raising the issue during in the House, SAD legislator Virsa Singh Valtoha accused two top Congress leaders of Punjab of flouting norms to take over 'shamlat land' (village common land) by illegal means in villages around Chandigarh.
The Congress leaders are not members of the Assembly, so Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal barred the SAD MLA from taking their names.
Valtoha alleged the Congress brothers business swelled by several crores of rupees in a brief period by indulging in murky land deals.

Congress members strongly protested the accusations with CLP leader Sunil Kumar Jakhar asking Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to institute an inquiry by a sitting judge of the high court to unravel the truth behind the land deals.
"I favour a probe so that truth comes out and guilty are not spared," Jakhar said.

Jakhar pointed towards SAD MLA N K Sharma, who too had faced severe allegations on murky land deals by the Congress in the recent past.
"On our aides (two Congress brothers) there are only allegations, but lot of truth has come out against N K Sharma through a RTI report on land deals," he said asking Sharma why is he sitting quiet and not making his position clear.

Intervening into the matter Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said, "The Punjab Congress president and his younger brother had taken control over 'shamlat' land through illegal ways and minted money."
During heated arguments between treasury and opposition benches, Punjab Congress president's wife Charanjeet Kaur, who is an MLA from Qadian, stood up and trashed the allegations as "baseless".
"Let the CBI probe the matter...Our family had done nothing wrong," she said.